posted 11-09-98 12:13 PM ET            

25th June

I met Captain Garland last night. He seems pleasant enough although he doesn't seem to know much about closed system engineering which is a bit worrying. I think he should at least know a little bit about the ship's systems. I can't really tell how well he'll act under pressure though. Maybe when we get to know him better we'll find out he's a great leader but I doubt it, his appointment was too political.

26th June

Garland gave his first chat to the crew today. Pretty dull, I think he is probably just a figurehead but I can't figure out the real power behind the ship. He just seems so ineffectual as a leader. Then again maybe it's just me I haven't heard any other talk in the mess. There aren't many crew here yet though. Most of the other scientists and engineers arrive today. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the new people. It's been hard here with the last of the construction crew supervising the changeover.

posted 11-10-98 07:50 AM ET            

The rebel encampments on Mars have destroyed one of my domes. What can I say. I spent 5 years on that project.

posted 11-12-98 09:58 PM ET            

"Look I don't care what orders are that would be murder!"

"I'm only going to tell you one more time all we do is cut power to the core for a few minutes at most a handfull of people outside would die proabably only get scared, and when the smoke clears no one will notice our little indescretion."

"It is still murder perhaps we could check the schedule for a time when no EVA is planned for a while?"

"Fine lets do that but if we don't muddy the water and someone finds out that we cut those wires they would proabably shove us out an airlock."

By now Dave was approaching the voices it turned the corner and continued with its computerised scan of the floor.

"YAAH!" yelled a man in the light blue uniform of an exterior construction tech.

"Relax its just one of the remotes that make sure all the direction strips are layed out correctly." replied his companion who was in civillian dress, but had a pilots wings on one shoulder.

"Yeah but it sure is quiet." the other responded.

posted 11-24-98 04:41 PM ET            

Tyco Base had grown a lot during these last 10 years. The Morgan Conglomerate logo was everywhere. It seemed like a steady stream of lighters were taking off and landing. The traffic control was almost like New LAX during rush hour.

posted 11-12-98 10:19 PM ET            

June 25th.
It seems the Mars rebels are going through the land destroying small installations, & killing some minor scientists. Though this means little to me, it is cowardly on their part, & is sending everything on earth spinning to hell. Massive inflation, I've heard something of 400%! I sometimes think it's a good thing my fiance died in the Connecticut riots of 2058, I wouldn't have to struggle through all this with a family. But then I just think of all the good times we had together, & wish I could still be with her. I will join her again one day, I'm hoping soon. I am nothing near suicidal on the field. I mean, I'm daring & all, but I gotta platoon looking up to me for advice & guidance, I can't just give up my life, & let them die on the Martian landscape, millions of miles away from their families.

June 27.
It seems a large group of rebels are advancing on our position. General O'Connor has ordered me & my platoon to dig in here & wait for reinforcements. He is an arrogant man, I don;t know how the UN could of put him in charge of an army. We are well trained & all, but our morale is pretty low. Most of these men know they're gonna die, away from their families, alone, on a cold, barren surface. Sometimes I begin to depress myself.
June 28
Damn, intel has just reported the size of the rebel force closing on our position. About 1000 men, 1 division, closing on my 50 men! ETA 2 days. our closest reinforcements, a company of about 100 men, is still 5 days away in FTV(Fast Terrain Vehicle). Sometimes I wonder why I'm so loyal to everything, then I just think back to my generations behind me. My great, great grandpa died leading an old fashioned charge on a German machine gun nest in WWII. My great grandpa was a crack sniper, racking in over 50 kills in Vietnam. My dad, my dad, he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for him & his company's rearguard action at the Battle of Brittany, they credited him for saving the entire division from collapsing & turning into a rout. Sadly he died defending, at bayonet point, his part of the line. I was 5. I got someone waiting for me in heaven, sometimes our path is chosen for us. Perhaps I should just face destiny & die like so many generations before me. Sadly, I am the last generation in my family.

posted 11-13-98 09:52 AM ET            

I have decided to go to Alpha Centauri. It wasn't an easy decision to make but I think it was inevitable. This is not a normal voyage. I have got the oportunity to be part of the first human expedition out of the Solar System, one of the great challenges left to Humanity. I have to be part of that. If I didn't go I would spend the rest of my life regretting it, so I must go. It will be an enormous challenge. I am the leading expert on recycling and waste recovery on the Unity. There are some great biologists and genetecists on board. I can virtually specify a bacteria or algae to them and they will build it exactly as required, like ordering a part from a precision engineering lab. The structural engineers are superb as well. We have cut gas and vapour leakage in the ventilation systems to 0.1% per year so far and although this is a huge improvement over the initial value we still have some way to go. I am really enjoying the work it is hard and tiring, we work 16 hour days and sleep the rest of the time but the enthusiasm is amazing. We are at the cutting edge of Human achievement and the motivation is superb.

The communication systems are still out except for an emergency transmitter that the bridge crew are using to talk to Earth. Still no word from Mars although the rumours suggest that the Rebels are doing extremely well. All the analysts who said you can't expect to put 10 million people on a new world and expect them to be ruled from another planet are probably appearing on every news and talk show grinning smugly. I'm glad I can't see it.

The spare part situation is ridiculous. We can't get a screw without filling in ten to the six forms. It's crazy. If the situation does not improve I am worried that the whole mission will fail.

posted 11-13-98 05:38 PM ET            

He was on his way to a cryocell aboard the U.N.S. Unity which was now parked in Moon orbit taking on fuel, supplies crew and colonists. He looked down at his U.N. Peacekeeping Force Colonel's uniform and smiled. He had Ph.D.s in psychology and pharmacology as well as the Nobel Prize in Economics but receiving the honorary commission in the U.N. was his proudest achievement. Now he was on his way to start a colony on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system. What an adventure!

As the terminator slowly engulfed the view below turning the landscape from yellows and browns to black strung with treads of lights, he looked for the name of an unofficial contact on the ship. He had been led to believe that given a little consideration a certain Quartermaster by the name of Specialist Fourth Class Arsinio Rivera could help him with a little some things over his allotted personal baggage mass. He was taking a risk, a rather expensive risk, bringing these things on board. But you never knew what would be valuable and useful, if a little illegal, within the context of a new society.

posted 11-13-98 05:39 PM ET            

[logon]

June 29

The news had sent a lot of people away from the big cities. Edinburg and Glasgow had to shut down the trains that left town because riots were breaking out at the departure stations. Well this was one good thing about taking my vacation early this year. Most of the people I have talked to up here expect more widespread riots to break out with in a month. I ask them why. Why does everybody want to riot? What's to come from it? Everybody is scared. Scared that they won't have any food, that their savings will disappear in the network, that the government will collapse. They have heard the stories about the ganglords in South America. I even heard my own story told back to be yesterday, only much of the details were missing and Amy seemed to have disappeared from the plot. It reminds me of the old medieval ballads. What the stories lack in historical facts are compensate for by use of emotion and dramatics.

The situation in Brazil was bad. I was there when the first riots broke out. I saw the monuments fall on the violent throng. I know what could happen but these people can only fear it. The sad part is, we all can stop it. It is the fear that motivates this self-destruction. But leaving the cities will not solve their problems. They leave the cities but the fear does not leave them. Like a contagion it is slowly spreading across the lands and boundaries of our planet. Sometimes I think that I have suffered enough of a loss already, that there is little left for me to hang on to. When I think about what is going on around me it just seems like a macrocosm of my personal suffering. I can't feel sorry for these people. Sometimes I can't even feel at all.

posted 11-14-98 08:04 PM ET            

---------------------------------------------
The Sickbay on the Unity was expansive. Just about every known medical device could be found here. And they were needed. With the Unity nearing completion, the Sickbay had been called into activation for the construction crews. It was taking to long to get seriously injured people to the Lunar Hospital, and the Med-Trans didn't have enough supplies for serious injuries. I remember when I got here, with the ill-equipt hosptals, watching those with serious trama having to be shipped to Earth in a cryo-tube. I knew that 90% of them wouldn't make it in time, their bodies destroyed by the ancient freezing systems. But now we cold save them.
---------------------------------------------

"ALERT-- MED-TRANS APPROACHING; ETA-4 MINUTES. ID ALPHA-32" The computer screens shot to life, showing a countdown. I looked at my Med-Comm: It was flashing red, with the words ALPHA-32. I was assigned to this one. The details popped onto the Comm:

MALE
WHITE
2.9 METERS
DOB- 1.26.15
ENGINEER

SEVERE RADIATION BURNS COVERING 50% OF BODY- TYPE DELTA
BP- 101/53
HR- 60 BPM

The Comm continued to show information. I knew his chances were slim- Delta burns were serious. He would most likely need hours of surgery, plus a Preventive Cancer Program. New info showed up:

# ASSIGNED: 10
DOCTORS: 5
NURSES: 5
TRAUMA 2
RADIATION SPECILIST CALLED
BURN SPECILIST CALLED
REQUEST MORE? YES NO

I didn't think we would need more, and hurried to Trauma 2. The room, like all Trauam rooms, was transparent in places on the circular walls, translucent in others. The automatic doors slid open as I walked in. Two nurses were already there. 20 seconds. The rest of the nurses and doctors hurried in at once, seemingly in chorous. The doors slid open once again, bringing in a grotesquely shriveled body on a strecher. The strecher locked into place on the table, and we began...

Two hours later, the man was on his way to the OR. We had just barely stabilised him. My Med-Comm signalled it was time for my break. I happily obliged.

posted 11-16-98 05:56 PM ET            

[logon]

June 31

It has been an interesting past couple of days. Amy is staying with me now, the situation in Edinburg is getting worse and I can allow her to stay in schools any more. A small group of protestors managed to get into a police armory. There has not been any violence. The protestors now call themselves the Citizenship for Survival. They promise no one will be hurt and claim they are motivated by a lack of appropriate actions from the Scottish National Government or the EU. They are asking that the EU or the national Government take steps to protect the property and well being of their citizens. In an e-bulletin they announced that similar groups are active in most of the major cities on the continent.

All this reminds me of the War of the Roses when "overmighty subjects" could rule the standing government. They had paid standing armies that could threaten juries and officials to get the outcome they wanted. Today roving clannish gangs look to be doing the same thing that these "overmighty subject" did over 900 years ago. They will drive our nation- no, our WORLD into absolute and total war.

I have often talked about fear and how it has motivated people to make stupid but seemingly life-saving choices. This is the end result of that fear. The arming of the world will cost in lives and livelihoods. I thought I had lost hope when the terrorists bombed our house and killed...

I don't know what to do anymore. Amy is upset too, she was really close to her mother and we both would like to have her back right now. Such a loving and calming voice is just what we need right now.

posted 11-17-98 07:29 AM ET            

This ship is insane!

I hate this bueracratic nonsense. I have to fill in 100 forms for a damn moisture detector then they send to earth for it! We've been delayed for 2 days for a �5 item which I could have made myself except we are not allowed to use non standard equipment.

I am beginnning to hope the rumours of a corporation takeover are true this operation is so inefficient that it is costing us weeks. Every week we go by we are losing days on the completion date.

Oh I got a promotion. Now I am the head of life support systems. More work more responsibility, same pay. Never mind it's only a title. I love the work and only the logistics are annoying me. If I am honest I needed those two days off.